With the unseasonably mild winter this year, I am getting reports daily now about ticks. I usually recommend starting Flea/Tick preventative on April 15th, but I'm going out on a limb this year and recommending starting a month earlier!! This year start your flea/tick preventative (if you use it) on March 15th.
There are many products, my general rule is use what you have had good luck with.
We have ordered Frontline for the year (fortunately), and have some Advantix. We'll be ordering more this week so we should have it toward the end of the week.
Just a review of ticks...
The big ones are the dog tick (gray) --don't carry anything, but are completely gross
The medium brown ones with the spot on the back are the wood tick--can carry Lyme, usually just gross
The small ones with the long legs and the reddish tint are the deer tick--Carrier of Lyme and most common in Maine
If you find a tick, do not freak out! Pour alcohol on them (loosens the cementum with glues the tick in) and grasp at the point where the tick enters the skin with tweezers and turn. Most of the time they just roll out, sometimes with a little piece of skin.
It is not true that if you don't get the head that it will get into the bloodstream, or grow a new tick, or turn into the Avatar Pterodactyl things.
Both Frontline and Advantix can let the tick attach, but it takes 24 hours to transmit the Lyme organism (Borrelia), and most ticks are totally dead by then.
There, that is all I know about ticks.
Have a great week, sorry for the creepy crawly interruption
Deer tick
:)
Mark
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